Miami Heartbreak For Blaney Equals Martinsville Must-Win

Ryan Blaney finished second Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (HHP/David Graham photo)

HOMESTEAD-MIAMI, Fla. – Runner-up wasn’t good enough for Ryan Blaney, who pieced together a remarkable performance, but failed to gain much ground in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

After Tyler Reddick ripped the high line – and the win – away from the reigning Cup Series champion in a heartbreaking thriller, Blaney was forced to settle for second in a gutting near miss.

Leading the race with 10 to go, Blaney was in prime position to drive off into the sunset, until Kyle Larson caught the Team Penske Ford and made an aggressive three-wide maneuver through the leader and lap traffic.

The 2021 champion bounced off the left-rear of the No. 12, then clipped the slower car in the top lane and went for a solo spin, bringing out the sixth and final caution of the day.

After netting their driver a total of five spots on pit road throughout the race, the No. 12 team executed one last time on the money stop and prevented Blaney from losing any positions.

Although he exited first and still lined on the front row for the final restart, Reddick ended up being the control car, courtesy of a timely caution. While all the leaders went down for service around lap 220, the No. 45 team waited until 15 to go and took a chance on staying out with only five laps on their tires.

On the restart with seven to go, Reddick pulled away in the top lane, as Blaney slowed on the inside and went on defense. Losing ground, the reigning champion threw a handful of blocks on Chase Elliott, which allowed him to be in the mix for the win.

In slowing the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s momentum, Blaney took Reddick and the No. 9 three-wide for the runner-up spot, while Denny Hamlin seized the lead from the high side.

Mirroring Hamlin’s tire tracks as the laps wound down, Blaney finally got around the No. 11 coming to take the white flag, but Reddick was right there. Hugging the wall, the driver in the No. 45 blew by Blaney’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the final turn for the biggest win of his career to date.

Blaney emerged from his car in disbelief and the crushing reality that a second consecutive runner-up at the 1.5-mile track still leaves him in a must-win scenario entering the final cutoff race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

“I had a good shot to win it, and I didn’t have a very good last lap,” Blaney admitted. “I thought I got into (turn) three hard and the 45 just went in there and it stuck for him, which is really impressive. I hate to give one away like that. I don't know if we gave it away. We got the lead back after losing it on the restart and just that last lap didn’t play out for us.

“I appreciate everybody on the 12 team for bringing a really fast race car. I had a really great shot to go to Phoenix (Raceway) and I still have one more chance, so we still have to look forward to that. It is a shame. I will be thinking through it all night of what I should have done differently, probably. That is just the way it goes but I am really proud of the effort, and hopefully we can bring it to them next week.”

From the drop of the green flag, Blaney was faced with an uphill climb, rolling off 20th and sitting 47 points below the cutoff as the seventh-ranked driver.

Although he fought a tight-handling car for a majority of the race, the speed in the No. 12 and race craft of the third-generation driver were enough for the team to assert themselves as ones to beat early on at Homestead.

Despite a lack of front turn in the corners, Blaney persevered and earned valuable bonus points with top-five finishes in both stages. Even more impressively, he skimmed the wall around lap 110 in stage two and was forced to make an early pit stop.

That wouldn’t derail his day, though, as he cycled to the lead with 40 to go in the segment, before tire fall-off and “zero front grip” amounted to a fifth-place finish at the second stage caution.

With shadows encroaching across the track, the team was able to tune the No. 12 to where it was one of the most competitive cars in the final stint. Blaney had a heated back-and-forth battle with Elliott for the lead, pacing the field for more than 40 laps in the closing stage.

The No. 12 team executed all day and Blaney flashed his best performance of the postseason, but the late caution and Reddick’s rail-riding rally caused them to come up just short on the final lap.

To make matters worse, they only gained nine points in the standings, since Elliott tied for the most stage points with 17 to Blaney’s 14, while Hamlin matched his total and Reddick won from below the cutoff.

As a result, Blaney remains the seventh-ranked driver going into the Round of 8 finale, sitting 38 points below the cutoff. The good news? The reigning champion boasts series-best numbers at Martinsville and he won the semi-final race last year to punch his ticket into Phoenix.

“I will take the night to replay a couple things and figure out what I could have done better,” Blaney said. “Tomorrow morning we will restack and get ready for Martinsville. I am excited though. I am super excited about the speed we had today. I can’t complain about that. Last week’s speed was great too before we got in the wreck. Hopefully we bring that same speed to Martinsville.”

Blaney will look to improve upon his runner-up from Homestead and win back-to-back fall races at Martinsville on Sunday, Nov. 3 in the Xfinity 500 at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.